Dual Cultivation God Returns

Chapter 1004: A secret war in shadows

Capítulo 1004: A secret war in shadows

“For starters, it might have been a genuine impulse on their part. Sword Cultivators… no, Weapon Cultivators tend to be competitive when it comes to skill with their weapon”, Wu Long began replying to the actual question next.

“Ah… yes, I read about that as well”, Wei Yuanjie instantly had recognition in his eyes.

“And it can also be simple arrogance. When they heard he was from a Fractured World, of a lower Boundless World no less, and called himself a Sword Cultivator, the inner arrogance within them could’ve prompted them to assert their superiority, as well as to show that ‘someone like that’ doesn’t deserve to claim that Dao”, Wu Long added.

“Ignorance of those who believe the Dao cannot be found everywhere equally, and that the path to the Dao is behind some golden gates thought up by people”, Duan Feng shook his head with lament.

“That is part of the equation, even if it is speculative which of the two it was, or maybe a combination”, Wu Long continued, “But it also cannot be denied that there is a possibility Ko Zhumen is colluding with the 5th prince. The mere fact he already extended formal greetings to him despite not doing it for you for so long already speaks volumes”

“That’s the part I don’t get”, Wei Yuanjie livened up, sitting up straight again, and even leaning a bit forward.

“He couldn’t really avoid doing it for the Imperial Delegation, because the delegation is more formal than a visit of a prince with only a ‘diplomatic mission’. After all, the Emperor’s brother acting as an official envoy is here”, Wu Long shrugged, “But he could have excluded the 5th prince from his greeting since the prince was here on the insistence of his maternal family, simply to counterbalance you, not really in any official capacity. That tells us that he wanted to elevate the status of the 5th prince. And there are two plausible explanations for that, neither of which I can exclude at this point”

He then raised his hand and unfolded his index finger, “One is that he is simply interested in doing the same thing I am doing by introducing more factors with the auction – causing trouble for you without necessarily improving his own position. He already had to concede acknowledging you, so adding the 5th prince doesn’t hurt him that much, however that makes things difficult for you which makes it worth his while”

And then unfolding his middle finger as well, “The second explanation is that there is a secret agreement between him and the 5th prince’s maternal family. It is entirely possible for the reason the Imperial City reacted so quickly to your mission here being unveiled, and thus the families backing the other princes were able to appeal to the Emperor to send out someone to make it a fair competition, is because City Lord Ko contacted them in hopes of thwarting you. If he succeeded in evading you to the end while the other prince arrived, he could have denied officially acknowledging both of you, stating as the reason that he did not know who to acknowledge, thus implying you had to have your competition among themselves”

“I see! So he wanted us to fight among ourselves without committing to any side. Even if he made an agreement with the 5th brother’s mother, he could simply state that circumstances didn’t allow him to intervene in the actual fight of two princes”, Wei Yuanjie exclaimed with an enlightened look.

“Yes, it is, of course, a speculation as well, but it is likely”

“But wouldn’t he still have to acknowledge one of them when the fight was over anyway?”, Duan Feng asked.

“Not necessarily. What he wanted to avoid was to bow his head to a direct descendant of the current Emperor. That would have automatically extended the pledge of his City’s allegiance to the next generation of the Imperial Family, and thus would have been active throughout the reign of the next Emperor, thousands of years into the future”, Wu Long shook his head.

“I see! If it’s uncle, it is still the previous generation of the Imperial Family and is treated as under the reign of only my Imperial Father, the current Emperor!”, Wei Yuanjie read the nuance.

“Indeed. He would’ve reached an agreement with the Imperial Ambassador behind closed doors before your competition with the 5th prince had a chance to find a conclusion”, Wu Long nodded, “Now, however, as you are both acknowledged, the pledge cannot go through without your participation in the ceremony – he failed the moment you managed to stand in front of him face to face that day”

“So the next best thing for him is to have the 5th prince, whose family he has an agreement with, come up on top”, Duan Feng nodded, understanding the situation.

“Hmm, if the City Lord is actually on his side, it might be a bit tough though, no?”, Wei Yuanjie traced his chin with a thoughtful expression, “I mean, he controls this City with an iron hand, so he could start subtly arranging events in this city that would skew things in 5th brother’s favor”

“Possibly, but we were going against him already, so it isn’t something we didn’t prepare for”, Wu Long shrugged without worry as he leaned back on the backrest of the sofa, “We have eyes and ears spread throughout the city, so we will see the signs ahead of time. Or rather, a secret war is about to start between our side and his, fought in the shadows of the city around the exact thing you pointed out”

“…every time I think I see everything you have you just take out more that I didn’t know about”, Wei Yuanjie sighed, shaking his head with a wry smile.

He has seen that Wu Long has subordinates, but with time he started to understand that it wasn’t just a small group, but a whole Sect, as he heard people address him as Valley Master.

Along with the Soaring Feather Trading Company which was meteorically rising, and the words he spoke about having people throughout the city, it amounted to a scary amount of influence for one person who wasn’t known to anyone.

Not just him, his whole powerful and apparently numerous force which could perhaps even rival one of the three big Sects, was completely unknown to the regional powers despite operating within the Wei Dynasty’s sphere of influence.

But Wei Yuanjie’s heart was already on Wu Long’s side even when measured against his allegiance to the Wei Dynasty – which wasn’t a strong sense of allegiance to begin with.

And Duan Feng, despite knowing a bit more about the origin of that force – though not able to explain how it traveled with Wu Long or where could such a scale of force hide with so many eyes searching for them – was also more of an ally to them rather than a stranger. And he was fundamentally not interested in politics and power structures to begin with, his focus more and more revolving around the Dao of the Sword.

—

Wu Long then went to see Li Weifang, he asked Butler Bang to send him toward the training field of the Oak Fortress. He praised his good work first, and then proceeded to make good on his promise to teach and guide him in Halberd Arts for a few hours as a starter, giving him plenty to practice and ponder on.

The latter first was trying to be polite, saying that he didn’t really do much as a follower yet, and that Wu Long was busy, but it was hard for him to hide his excitement at receiving Wu Long’s teachings, and so his resistance did not last long.

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